Miscellaneous

Hello! Hi. I’m still alive and well aware that it has definitely been a minute since my last post.

In that time span, I have (thankfully) transferred all my files and photos to an external hard drive, lost any functionality on my HP laptop, bought a MacBook Pro 2015 and then returned it, and just bought a MacBook Pro 2018 that has yet to have any media imported on it. PHEW.

I’m still getting using to Apple as a whole, particularly the keyboard as I’m currently typing this – I find their keyboards to be slightly too far to the right and I keep hitting the wrong keys. I’m also still aggravated that I can’t see the time in the bottom right corner and the close/minimize buttons are on the left side – like at this point it just feels spiteful to have them there.

I also bought and downloaded Affinity Photo and will be testing out that software hopefully this weekend, when my dongles arrive and I can import media.

Additionally, I allowed myself to splurge a little since I had a credit on my Prime card from the 2015 return, and finally bought a ring light, photo studio setup, and an extra backdrop. I have a selfie shoot planned for this weekend that will tie into all that and help me try out Affinity, so hopefully some new content coming your way here.

Speaking of selfies, I would check out my website every time I went into the Apple store huffing and puffing over whether I should indulge in the 2018, and I noticed that this year has been, first of all, sparse on posts, but secondly, full of photos of myself. Maybe I should analyze that deeper, but I’d like to try to get different models and extend my portrait portfolio beyond photos of myself.

Eventually I’d like to pick up that 52 week photo challenge I started in the beginning of the year and dropped a couple months in. I can’t really call it procrastination anymore when it’s been roughly 8 months since the last time I even attempted it, right?

I’m currently about a week behind in Inktober sketches, so there’s there too, but I’m solidly planning on finishing that project.

Like this:

This zoom burst challenge really got me challenged. And I’m giving up on it. I know I’ve achieve it before – and you know what, I’ll include one of my favorite shots from that time at the end – but this time around? I cannot get it down. So I’m calling this one a wrap and moving on.

It’s not really an effect I try to achieve, like, ever, anyway.

And then, here’s an old selfie from 6 years ago! in Philadelphia, when Maria and experimented with our cameras one night. I think we got the zoom burst down that night.

I really liked this prompt because rhythms and repetitions are so enchanting and relatively easy to find, whether they’re naturally occurring or man-made.

I chose to photograph a garnet mala bead necklace that I used to wear with a lot more frequency a few years ago. Now it just hangs with a bunch of other necklaces I don’t wear.

Anyway, I’m in love with the way this photo came out. It was accidental. I was standing by the window to catch good light and my drapes got in the way. Or rather, enhanced the photo. It looks like my hand is coming out of milk and it makes me want to recite “out of the ashes I rise with my red hair and eat men like air.” (Sylvia Plath, you’re welcome.)

Photographer’s choice!? You know what that means – definitely a selfie.

My neighbor’s cat and I have a mutual love thing going on and he popped up during my shoot after I got my hair done (hellooooo ORANGE! ginger). As you can see, I use a little remote to achieve these photos and cradling him for pictures often means it pops up into view.

F-stop: f/1.8
Exp: 1/50
ISO: 400

35mm NIKKOR lens (have I mentioned how absolutely in love with this lens I am??)

As someone whose photography is color harmony on crack (I mean, seriously, just look at my florals) I found this past week’s challenge actually challenging. I think the major reason is of course because of the season – I’d say my specialty is definitely floral photography, so when there’s no flowers to photograph, I’m out of my comfort zone.

But I took to the streets on Thursday, even got REALLY out of my comfort zone and photographed things in stores – which I’m always really leery about doing because I don’t want to get in trouble for “taking pictures of merchandise”.

Anyway, one of my stops of Cranbrook House and Gardens, which is more in my realm of comfort. I shot some neat photos of foliage and things like that, but I got a couple shots of a fallen piece of a pine tree against the red bricks in the wooded fountain across from the main entrance of the house.

The original photo is vastly underwhelming, and I’ll post it below. But I knew when I took the shot that it had potential post-processing, and I’m happy that I was right.

Truthfully, I have been absolutely spanked by this year’s holiday season, but they’re finally over and I finally have consecutive days of time off coming up and I’m thrilled because I have a bunch of stuff I need to do to “get my life back together” as it were.

I didn’t get a chance to post week one within week one on here (but I did on Instagram, @vivianapodinaphotography) so I’m posting it at the beginning of week two here, because by the time I decide what I want to do for week two, it’ll be later in the week anyway.

So week one’s theme was “look ahead” – cause you know, new year, new goals and stuff like that. It’s coupled with the category vision.

We’ve been letting my neighbor’s cat come inside cause it’s super cold out lately (like, single digit and negatives) so he can have a snack and enjoy some warmth for a bit. Anyway, a few days ago he was making himself at home in my room and I found the perfect opportunity to not only take pictures of him because he’s my favorite kitty, but also, he stares off at things a lot – so you know, how can I pass up the cliche gazing in the distance opportunity?

Anyway, the first photo is the one I used for the challenge because it’s clear, but I shot him in full manual and I captured a few others I really liked. The second is a full manual shot, but it’s a bit blurry where I wish it wouldn’t be.

I find the trouble with shooting full manual is often that staring through a tiny peephole, I can’t always gauge whether my focus is going to come out like I think it will when I actually snap the photo. But we’ll see, maybe I’ll get better at it this year.